Air

Tracking the latest agency and congressional debates over rules to cut emissions of traditional pollutants, and a broad range of novel EPA policies including the agency's shift to a "multipollutant" regulatory approach for individual sectors.

Topic Subtitle
Tracking the latest agency and congressional debates over rules to cut emissions of traditional pollutants, and a broad range of novel EPA policies including the agency's shift to a "multipollutant" regulatory approach for individual sectors.

Environmentalists Urge Major Air Permit Reforms To Address Climate, EJ

The Biden EPA is facing new calls from environmentalists to strengthen Clean Air Act permitting programs to help cut carbon emissions and address environmental justice (EJ), with a key group arguing the move would significantly enhance deployment of non-emitting technology and build on incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The advocacy, however, comes as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is joining industry and GOP calls for the Biden administration to reach a deal with Congress on legislation that would...

Industry, State Critics Target Good Neighbor Rule’s ‘Over-Control’ Costs

Industry and state critics of EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) interstate ozone rule are targeting its “over-control” of air emissions, excessive costs and inconsistent treatment of western states in their opening legal briefs, while renewing prior arguments that rule’s partial application renders it unlawful. In first-time merits briefs filed April 1 in the consolidated suit State of Utah v. EPA, now pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the critics reprise arguments they...

EPA Seeks Rehearing Of Venue Ruling In West Virginia Ozone Plan Suit

EPA is seeking en banc review of an appellate panel ruling that blocked the agency from moving West Virginia’s litigation over its denial of the state’s interstate ozone plan to the District of Columbia Circuit, making arguments that directly contradict those of other states and industry groups now appealing the venue issue to the Supreme Court. In its March 29 petition for rehearing en banc , EPA asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit to review...

EPA floats expanded air emissions reporting rule

EPA has sent for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review its draft final rule that significantly expands the number of facilities required to report their air toxics emissions, a measure that has drawn strong support from environmentalists but stiff doubts from states. OMB received the final rule for review April 1, according its website. Pre-publication review typically takes up to 90 days, but can be faster or slower, depending on the circumstances. As proposed , the revised...

Critics Ask Justices To Keep ‘Good Neighbor’ SIP Suits In Regional Courts

Utah and Oklahoma, as well as a coalition of local industry groups, are separately petitioning the Supreme Court to settle an appellate split over the appropriate venue for suits challenging EPA’s disapproval of state ozone plans, arguing venue is proper only in regional courts, in a move with serious implications for EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) rule, and litigation over state air plans in general. In petitions for certiorari filed with the high court March 28, the parties seek...

EPA Vehicle Rule Offers Model For ‘Major Questions’ Rebuttal, Expert Says

EPA’s rebuttal against claims that its passenger vehicle emissions standards violate the “major questions” doctrine, which cites statutory mandates and past agency practice, represents an “impressive” defense, according to one legal expert who adds that the arguments should serve as a model for other agencies defending against similar attacks. “EPA’s thorough analysis also offers a critical roadmap for Department of Justice litigators who will soon brief this issue. Other agencies should study EPA’s approach and follow suit,” argues Max Sarinsky,...

Final Truck GHG Rule Highlights Possibility Of Compliance Without ZEVs

EPA’s newly final “phase 3” heavy truck greenhouse gas rule touts manufacturers’ ability to comply via multiple strategies, including new scenarios the agency modeled that could achieve the requirements out to model year 2032 without any new pure electric trucks beyond what would be expected without the standards. These scenarios -- which include heavier reliance on plug-in hybrid models, hydrogen internal combustion engines or natural gas trucks -- aid EPA’s efforts to defend the rule legally and politically as a...

Environmentalists seek to intervene in PM2.5 litigation

Environmentalists are seeking to intervene on behalf of EPA in litigation aiming to scrap the agency’s recently strengthened national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for fine particulate matter (PM2.5), though they argue in part that they should be allowed to intervene because the agency does not adequately represent their interests. Earthjustice and Clean Air Task Force, representing health, environmental and community organizations, filed a March 27 motion to intervene in support of EPA to the U.S. Court of Appeals for...

EPA, Environmentalists Reach Deadline Deal For Haze SIPs In 33 States

EPA and environmental groups have reached an agreement that requires the agency to take final action approving or denying 33 state implementation plans (SIPs) addressing regional haze by the end of 2026, resolving a lawsuit that charged that the agency had missed statutory deadline to act. The draft consent decree , announced in a March 29 Federal Register notice , is open for a 30-day comment period before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia can finalize...

EPA Partially Denies Critics’ Good Neighbor Petitions Due To Rule Stay

EPA is partially denying petitions to reconsider and administratively stay the multi-state Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) for attaining the 2015 ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS), finding the petitions -- three from industry groups and one from a state -- “provide no good basis on which the [plan] should be modified or withdrawn.” EPA in the denials also strongly defends the “modular” nature of the GNP and is seeking to keep it in force in states where courts have...

Final EPA Heavy Truck GHG Standards Ease Near-Term Requirements

EPA’s final rule setting greenhouse gas limits for heavy-duty vehicles eases near-term limits the agency had proposed, falling short of calls by environmentalists and many states to significantly strengthen the plan, though the rule tightens longer-term limits for some vehicle types. EPA on March 29 released its final phase 3 GHG regulation for numerous truck classes in model years 2027-32, including delivery vehicles, school buses, dump trucks and tractor trailers. The release of the rule, which environmental justice groups say...

Environmentalists sue over EPA failure to implement SO2 limit

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) and Sierra Club are urging a federal district court to find that EPA violated the Clean Air Act when it failed to implement its 2010 federal air quality standards for sulfur dioxide (SO2) in nine states and two territories, calling for a mandatory injunction requiring the agency to take action. The groups filed a March 28 complaint to the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California regarding EPA’s failure to ensure that...

SSM ‘SIP Call’ Ruling Raises Doubts Over EPA Policy, State Air Plans

A recent appellate court ruling largely scrapping the Obama-era rule that barred waivers for industry startup, shutdown and malfunction (SSM) events raises difficult questions about the future of EPA policy and states’ plans to meet federal air quality standards, with further appeals still possible and states uncertain how to respond in the interim. In its March 1 ruling in Environmental Committee of the Florida Electric Power Coordinating Group, Inc., v. EPA, et al. , a divided panel of the U.S...

Railroads Urge Court To Preserve Suit Over CARB’s Locomotive Rules

The railroad industry is urging a federal district court to rule on the remaining claims in its pared-down challenge to the California air board’s rule requiring emission cuts from existing locomotives, pushing back on the board’s call for the court to dismiss the remaining claims or stay the case until EPA acts on its request for a Clean Air Act (CAA) waiver. In a March 26 brief in Association of American Railroads (AAR) and American Short Line And Regional Railroad...

EJ Advocates Push EPA For Speedy, Stronger Gas Power Plant GHG Rule

Environmental justice (EJ) advocates are pushing EPA to quickly issue stringent greenhouse gas limits for existing natural gas-fired power plants as the agency seeks early input for a planned rulemaking on the topic, arguing the forthcoming standards must also include a robust EJ analysis and a cumulative impacts analysis (CIA). These advocates have broadly supported EPA’s decision to drop its proposed GHG limits for existing gas from the agency’s soon-to-be-final power plant climate rule -- which would have affected only...

EPA Poised To Sign Key Chemical Sector Air Toxics Rule With Few Changes

EPA remains on track to sign its sweeping air toxics rule regulating much of the organic chemical and polymers manufacturing sector by March 29, likely with few changes from the proposed version, environmentalists and agency officials say, clearing the way for new limits and fenceline monitoring requirements for ethylene oxide (EtO) and a suite of other previously unregulated chemicals. The rule as proposed would set new emissions limits for a large number of facilities. It is also expected to include...

EPA Launches Comment Process For Existing Gas Plant GHG Standards

EPA is formally seeking input on its plan to regulate greenhouse gas and other emissions from existing gas-fired power plants, with officials taking the first step in the regulatory process after they announced they would remove such plants from its forthcoming final GHG standards for new gas plants and existing coal plants. “EPA has opened a non-regulatory docket and issued framing questions to gather input about ways we can design a stronger, more durable approach to greenhouse gas regulation of...

Refiners, Biofuel Producers Attack Legality Of RFS ‘Set’ Volumes Rule

Refiners suing EPA over its renewable fuel standard (RFS) “set” rule, which set all biofuel blending volumes for the first time under the agency’s own authority, say the rule’s goal of increasing biofuel use is not required by law and is contradicted by evidence suggesting the volumes are too high. “EPA’s Rule disregards the past performance and failures of the RFS as well as the entirely new statutory criteria Congress provided to set applicable volumes for 2023-2025,” says a coalition...

Environmentalists Brace For Weaker Final GHG Truck Rule Than Sought

EPA’s imminent final “phase 3” heavy-truck greenhouse gas rule appears likely to prompt a mixed reaction from the environmental community, amid indications that the agency might not strengthen requirements from the proposed version of the rule and might even soften near-term standards for some larger vehicles to offer concessions to industry. However, sources expect the later years of the program to track more closely with EPA’s proposed standards, partially echoing a dynamic that played out when the agency last week...

EPA Plan To Ease Lime Kilns Air Toxics Rule Fails To Satisfy Key Groups

EPA’s supplemental plan to ease its proposed air toxics limits for the lime manufacturing industry is drawing criticism from all sides, with environmentalists urging the agency not to water down its original plan while industry groups and their congressional supporters are calling for additional changes to ease their concerns. In March 11 joint comments , Earthjustice, Sierra Club and California Communities Against Toxics oppose the agency’s Feb. 9 supplemental proposal, released in response to heavy industry criticism, that suggested setting...

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